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Israeli president’s speech to Congress highlights ‘unbreakable bond’ despite US unease

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel’s figurehead president speaks to Congress in an appearance Wednesday aimed at demonstrating what he calls the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States, despite U.S. concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul and ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank.Isaac Herzog becomes the second Israeli president, after his father, Chaim Herzog, to address Congress. His speech will mark modern Israel’s celebration of its 75th year. But the Israeli president’s visit also is exposing the difficulties that Democrats face in balancing longstanding U.S. support for ally Israel with disapproval of some actions by Netanyahu’s government, a coalition of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties.The House on Tuesday passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who, over the weekend, called the country a “r...

IRS whistleblowers to testify to Congress as they claim ‘slow-walking’ of Hunter Biden case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Whistleblowers claiming the Justice Department improperly interfered with a yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden will testify before Congress on Wednesday as House Republicans accelerate their probes into the president and his family.Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees will lead a hearing with two Internal Revenue Service employees — Greg Shapley and an as-yet-unnamed “whistleblower x” — who claim there was a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including delayed enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.It will be the first public testimony from the two IRS agents assigned to the federal case into President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, which was focused on tax and gun charges. The second agent, whose name was withheld in interview transcripts released by Republicans, is expected to have his identity revealed at the hearing.The congression...

A key part of Biden’s strategy to control immigration at the US-Mexico border gets a court hearing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit opposing an asylum rule that is a key part of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Critics say the rule endangers migrants trying to cross the southern border and is against the law, while the administration argues that it encourages migrants to use lawful pathways into the U.S. and prevents chaos at the southern border.The new rule took effect May 11 with the expiration of a COVID-19 restriction known as Title 42 that had limited asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new rule makes it extremely difficult for migrants who come directly to the southern border to get asylum unless they use a government app to get an appointment or they’ve already tried to seek protection in another country before coming to the U.S. It includes room for exceptions and would not apply to children traveling alone.The lawsuit threatens to undermine a key tool that President Joe Biden’s administration has relied on...

DeSantis fights to reset his stagnant campaign as Trump dominates the 2024 conversation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For Ron DeSantis, it was supposed to be an important opportunity to help reset his stagnant Republican presidential campaign. But yet again, the moment was overshadowed by Donald Trump.The former president’s new legal challenges dominated much of the day as DeSantis spoke at a brief press conference and sat for a highly anticipated interview designed to reassure anxious donors and primary voters alike that he’s still well-positioned to defeat Trump. And again, DeSantis offered mixed messages when asked about Trump, training his most aggressive criticism at federal law enforcement officials instead of his chief Republican rival, who could soon be charged over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.“We look at institutions, unfortunately, like our own FBI and Department of Justice, and we’ve seen the politicization of those institutions. We’ve seen them be weaponized against Americans,” DeSantis said. A few minutes later, he added a modest jab when ...

Honduras wants to build West’s only island prison colony and lock gangsters inside

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras plans to build the only island prison colony in the Western Hemisphere and send its most-feared gangsters there, tearing a page from neighboring El Salvador’s unforgiving approach to murder, robbery, rape and extortion.Honduras’s progressive president once promised to address gang violence through systemic reforms to governance and the criminal justice system. Now, President Xiomara Castro plans to build an isolated prison for 2,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast, part of a larger crackdown following the gang-related massacre of 46 women in one prison.Island prisons once were common across Latin America, with facilities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru. Deadly riots, brutal conditions and bold prison escapes captured filmmakers’ and authors’ imaginations before the last island prison closed in Mexico in 2019.In Honduras, authorities are betting that a...

Trump’s target letter suggests the sprawling US probe into the 2020 election is zeroing in on him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A target letter sent to Donald Trump suggests that a sprawling Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election is zeroing in on him after more than a year of interviews with top aides to the former president and state officials from across the country.Federal prosecutors have cast a wide net, asking witnesses in recent months about a chaotic White House meeting that included discussion of seizing voting machines and about lawyers’ involvement in plans to block the transfer of power, according to people familiar with the probe. They’ve discussed with witnesses schemes by Trump associates to enlist slates of Republican fake electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden and interviewed state election officials who faced a pressure campaign over the election results in the days before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.It is unclear how much longer special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation will last, but its gravity was e...

Twins’ suddenly potent bats put the hurt on Mariners pitching in 10-3 victory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

SEATTLE — Don’t look now, but the Minnesota Twins are hitting.This was the consensus issue with the Twins — anecdotally and statistically — when they stumbled into the all-star break with a three-game losing streak, a .232 team batting average and a half-game out of first place in the American League Central Division.With 71 games remaining and a division title firmly within its grasp, the team vowed to put together more good at-bats. The pitching, which featured one of the best starting rotations in the majors before the break, just had to continue apace.So far, so good.Alex Kirilloff went 3 for 4 with a triple, two-run home run and three runs scored, and rookie Edouard Julien went 3 for 5 with a home run and two runs scored, as the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-3, Tuesday in front of 28,141 at T-Mobile Park.Since starting a three-game series last Friday in Oakland, the Twins are hitting .301 with 11 home runs and averaging 6.6 runs a game. Not coincidentally, they’re 4...

Resident in O'Fallon, Missouri decided to put down their own speed bumps to slow down traffic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

O'FALLON, Mo. - Residents in O'Fallon, Missouri, decided to take matters into their own hands to solve a problem communities all over the St. Louis area have been dealing with.Residents said they are trying to stop people from speeding through their community. Cory Starkey got the idea of neighbors putting their speed bumps and speed cones in the street to slow down traffic."I’ve made a makeshift speed bump out here; I’ve put cones out just to try to get the community to be aware that if you come through here, we’re going to slow you down," Starkey said. "They’re portable speed bumps they’re made out of rubber, so whenever the kids are out, I can drag them out, whenever the kids are in, I bring them back into the garage.” Clerk shot and killed at St. Louis City gas station He said he had some officials complain about the practice but said if they did it then they just can’t get action from O’Fallon."They were trying to get a stop sign. Since there’s no sidewalks out here, it’s an ...

SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 rocket from Southern California base

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

SpaceX is launching a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California on Tuesday night.The rocket is scheduled to lift off from the base at 10:25 p.m. PDT and will be carrying a group of Starlink satellites into orbit. Takeoff was pushed back from the initial 9:34 p.m. time.The launch should be visible to onlookers hundreds of miles away.According to the company, 15 satellites will be carried to low-Earth orbit during Tuesday night’s mission.Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite network designed to bring low-cost internet service to rural/remote communities.After previous successful launches, Starlink now boasts over 4,200 functional satellites orbiting the Earth, according to CNET. The launches are part of the company’s goal to build a giant constellation of broadband satellites across the globe.Following stage separation after liftoff, the Falcon’s reusable booster is scheduled to land back on the spaceport drone ship, “Of Course I Still Love You,” in the Paci...

Flores homers twice, SF Giants rally past Cincinnati Reds for seventh straight win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:06:45 GMT

CINCINNATI (AP) — Casey Schmitt drew a bases-loaded walk that forced home the go-ahead run in a three-run seventh inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 11-10 Tuesday night for a seven-game winning streak.San Francisco began the evening by winning the completion of Monday’s suspended game 4-2 behind Joc Pederson’s tiebreaking, 10th-inning double.Cincinnati has lost six straight, matching its season high.Wilmer Flores homered twice off Luke Weaver, a solo drive in the first and a three-run homer in the third that tied the score 4-4. Flores had three home runs in the two games.Walnut Creek’s Christian Encarnacion-Strand, a 23-year-old playing his second big league game, had a pinch-hit, three-run homer off Mauricio Llovera in the fifth for an 8-7 Reds lead. He was surprised to be sent up to pinch-hit but appreciated the faith.“Honestly, when it happened, I was just happy,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “I just want to be a spark for the team. … I try not ...